Always faster, sometimes safer: multi-national operations, whether of disaster relief or peacekeeping nature, in distant underdeveloped regions are driving demands for strategic airlifters and tankers, and for fixed-, rotary- and tilt-wing intra-theatre transports. Sea and land aspects of mobility are reviewed in following sections of this report.

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Always faster, sometimes safer: multi-national operations, whether of disaster relief or peacekeeping nature, in distant underdeveloped regions are driving demands for strategic airlifters and tankers, and for fixed-, rotary- and tilt-wing intra-theatre transports. Sea and land aspects of mobility are reviewed in following sections of this report.

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Whether or not the future brings more far-flung occupation-type defence scenarios or force-on-force combat between major powers, the need for airlift will remain, and the current generation of strategic and tactical airlifters will eventually be replaced.

Future Strategic Transports

In February 2008 the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) invited proposals for an 'Efficient Affordable Global-Lift Flight Demonstrator' that will provide the aerodynamic and structural technology for a replacement for the 380-tonne Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy.

Advanced airframe concepts applicable to a future strategic airlifter include a welded-tip tandem-wing configuration, studied some years ago by Lockheed Martin, and a tailless blended wing-body (BWB), as tested with the Boeing-designed X-48B.

There is some American interest in the idea of a high-capacity, low-speed strategic airlifter in the form of a cambered airship with vectorable turboprops. Supporting around one-third of its weight in forward flight by means of aerodynamic lift, one such project aimed to carry a 500-tonne payload for 10,000 km at a cruise speed of 165 km/hr.

Reaching anywhere in the world in less than a week, these massive aircraft could excel in disaster relief operations. However, in military use they would require even gre...

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